Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage
|publisher= |release= JP December 16, 1999 NA March 15, 2000 EU May 19, 2000 |platform= |genre= , |mode = Single-player |rating = CERO - D ESRB - M PEGI - 18 |media = Disc |website = Closed }} Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage, also known as in Japan, is a video game for the Sega Dreamcast based on the popular ''Berserk manga by Kentarou Miura. It takes place anywhere between volumes 22 and 23 of the Berserk manga; right after Guts and Puck depart for Elfhelm with Casca, but before Farnese, Serpico and Isidro join the party. The music is composed by Susumu Hirasawa, who also composed the 1997 anime series' music. Plot Summary After leaving Rickert and Erica to venture towards Elfhelm, Guts, Puck and Casca come across a caravan being robbed by bandits. They invoke Guts' wrath when they notice the approaching Casca and state their intent to take both her and the caravan's performing girl. After the bandits are dispatched, the girl introduces herself as Rita, and expresses her hope for Guts to attend the performance that her troupe is to hold in the nearby town. At Puck's insistence, and after sensing something within the strongman in the cart, Guts accepts Rita's invitation. But during the show, the strongman, Job, is revealed to have a repulsive growth on his body; the villagers begin to stone him, recognizing its significance. Despite Rita's pleas to the mob, Job transforms into a monster, which Guts kills to Rita's dismay. At that moment, a carriage arrives, from which the town's ruler, Baron Balzac, emerges to inspect Job's body. Thanking Guts, Balzac explains that the village has long suffered an incurable plague that turns its victims into rampaging monsters called "Mandragorans". Noticing Casca's regressed state, Balzac convinces Guts to come to his castle while having Rita arrested for her association with Job. Once at the castle, Guts is taken by Balzac to his secret laboratory, where he learns of the Mandragora plants that possess people and cure disease. Balzac talks about the lifespan of a Mandragora and how he has been trying to obtain the heart of a fully grown plant since it has infinite healing possibilities. However, as the heart is located in a Mandragoran-infested village on the edge of his domain, Balzac offers to use his resources to heal Casca if Guts retrieves the heart in his stead. Though the swordsman admits that he does not trust Balzac, especially since the latter is holding pre-Mandragorans in his dungeon, he accepts the proposal, and is then told that he may confront a nun named Eriza, who is protecting the Mandragora's heart. Back upstairs, Casca and Puck, who have accompanied Guts to Balzac's castle, see a painting of a beautiful woman. They then find Rita, who is about to be killed by a rebel group raiding the castle. The rebels ultimately kill the two soldiers holding Rita captive, before going downstairs and freeing the transformed Mandragorans. After Balzac excuses himself to attend to the emergency, Guts fights his way through the freed Mandragorans. Suddenly, Puck flies in to tell him that the rebels have kidnapped Casca. They hurry out, coming across Rita's dog, who leads them to the abductors. Before a fight between Guts and the rebels can ensue, however, their leader Dunteth reveals that Casca is safe and takes the swordsman to their underground base. On the way there, Dunteth explains that Balzac once was a kind ruler, until the epidemic changed him into a tyrant. Upon reaching the bottom of the base, Guts' presence causes the spirits of the dead to rise, and he dispatches them before he is reunited with Casca. Guts explains that despite Dunteth's words concerning Balzac, he must get the Mandragora's heart so the baron can cure Casca. Dunteth decides to assist Guts so they can barter with Balzac, and Puck explains that Casca will be safe in an elven spring chamber with him and Rita looking after her. After fighting animal-based Mandragorans and bandits, Guts and the rebels reach the Mandragora village. Though the villagers behave serenely, they transform into Mandragorans the moment one of the rebels plucks out a Mandragora plant, and Dunteth is killed by one of the transformed villagers. The Mandragorans soon cease their attack when a nun, Eriza, appears and plants the Mandragora back into the Earth while Rita runs into the village. Rita reveals that Balzac's men have attacked the rebel base and taken Casca hostage to force Guts to bring them the Mandragora's heart. When Guts demands her to tell him where the Mandragora's heart is, Eriza instead explains the past of a simple boy named Niko, who lived a blissful life before he died one winter night while clutching a strange item. She relays that the Mandragorans only want peace and that they live happier than humans. However, Guts still insists that he must acquire the Mandragora's heart, and Eriza takes refuge in the village's church. The swordsman instead follows Eriza through an underground passage beneath the church and discovers her to be a Mandragoran in disguise; she protects the Mandragoran Tree, revealed to be spawned from Niko's body. Nevertheless, Guts manages to cut out the tree's heart. Though Eriza attempts to flee with the heart, she finds the entire village being burned to the ground by Balzac's forces, commanded by his adviser Gyove. Faced with a conundrum, Eriza chooses death and runs back into the burning church, to Rita's horror. As Rita notices the pendant Eriza dropped – a Beherit – Gyove and his men flee for their lives, as Zodd has arrived in the village. Having been sent by Griffith for a special task, Zodd learned that Guts was nearby when he unintentionally freed Casca and Puck from a spirit infested cell. Approaching Guts, Zodd states that he wants to resume where they left off. Eventually, after their battle ends in a draw, Zodd departs to resume his task while advising Guts to save his woman. Though Rita is glad the people infected by the Mandragoras are returning to normal, the people in question find their loved ones dead and blame Guts as he leaves without defending himself. Meanwhile, Puck and Casca try to find a way out of the castle, coming across a laboratory in their search. They then enter a bedroom where they find a girl who Puck believes to be Balzac's daughter, who has a state of mind similar to Casca's. Hearing voices coming from upstairs, Puck and Casca take refuge in a room that houses an infant-like creature revealed to be a Mandragora's heart's fragment that Balzac acquired. When Balzac enters the room, the heart grows around Casca while uttering a shriek that rallies the Mandragorans in the dungeon to run amok by the time Guts and Rita return to the town. Fighting their way through the Mandragorans and Balzac's underlings, Guts and Rita arrive at the castle and see the mysterious girl. They take her along and, after Guts kills Gyove, they reach Balzac's throne room. When Guts asks where Casca is, Balzac explains that it is too late; desperate, Rita asks Balzac how he came to be this way. Balzac confesses that he was once a kind ruler, before the pressure of ruling his land and caring for his ill wife eventually caused him to break. He further states that he now only finds comfort in spilling the blood of others. When Rita asks about the happiness of his "daughter", Balzac reveals the girl to be his wife, Annette, whom he saved from illness with a drug extract made from the Mandragora's heart. The adverse side effects of the drug resulted in Annette's psyche being reduced to that of a mindless child, incapable of remembering her husband; Puck notices that this is similar to the relationship between Guts and Casca. Tired of talking, Balzac drinks a substance to become a Mandragoran. However, Guts manages to overcome the monstrous man, and he and Rita run off, the latter losing Eriza's pendant as it drops near Balzac's body. Guts eventually reaches the chamber of the Mandragora's heart, which grows into a giant Mandragora with Casca trapped inside its petals. Ferociously, Guts fights against the gargantuan creature before managing to kill it, and in doing so, freeing Casca. While checking to see if she is alright, Guts is shocked to find Casca recognizing him – claiming to have woken up from a "bad dream" – before reverting back to her child-like state. Puck recognizes Casca's temporary recovery to be a consequence of the Mandragora's possession. Guts then senses Balzac's blood activating the Beherit on Eriza's pendant. Balzac offers Annette to the God Hand to be reborn an Apostle, but Guts disposes of him soon after. With the town returning to some state of normalcy, Guts and his group part ways with Rita to continue their journey; the performing girl promises to remember them. Back in Balzac's castle, the Skull Knight recovers Balzac's Beherit and swallows it, gradually building his Beherit Sword. Cast & Crew Voice Director: * Kris Zimmerman Voice Cast: Soundtrack External links * [http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/198872.asp Sword of the Berserk: Guts' Rage] at Game Rankings. Category:Video Games Category:Media